ARMS (Automated Revenue Management System) Ltd, the government company that processes the electricity and water bills, will be moving to Gattard House in Blata l-Bajda soon said Finance, Economy and Investment Minister Tonio Fenech, yesterday.
New and modern satellite customer care offices are also expected to open in other locations to cater for customer care queries, he went on, and added that a number of much needed changes will be implemented to ensure that customers are served better.
The first year for ARMS Ltd was characterised by lengthy queues attributed to technical hitches in the software used to process the conversion of data. This, together with hitches caused by the allowance scheme given to families who consume less than 10,000 units of water and electricity created a backlog of problems.
People queued for hours outside the Water Services Corporation offices in Luqa seeking a solution to their queries.
“The problems are slowly being dealt with and both Enemalta and WSC are committed to continue working towards rendering the system as smooth as possible,” added Minister Fenech.
He spoke during the inauguration of a new Enemalta District Office in Mosta, yesterday.
Acting Enemalta chairman Edmund Gatt Baldacchino said the office in Mosta is important because it encapsulates a number of services under one roof and also offers facilities such as stores, training and recreation rooms for the Enemalta employees based there. He is hopeful that the newly improved environment will encourage a more efficient service for consumers.
Although very often the attention is focused on the generation of electricity, there is also substantial investment targeted to strengthen the electricity distribution system to ensure that the provision of electricity is secure and for the country to remain competitive in attracting high quality investment, said the minister.
Among the projects, the minister mentioned the €20 million investment in the Kappara distribution centre which will serve as a hub for the distribution of energy for the north east of Malta and as a link to the interconnector cable with the European energy grid.
Two eight kilometre long 132kv cables are also being installed along underground tunnels between the power station and the Marsa distribution centre in the industrial estate, costing Enemalta some €5.8m.
Mr Fenech went on speaking about the €5m investment in the centralised Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system known as SCADA. This system enables the corporation to control and supervise all its networks from a control room at the power station.This system should make the provision of electricity more reliable and improve the intervention time in case of technical faults.